


after the world ends

by ourdarkspirits



Category: Tomb Raider (Movie 2018)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:48:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21857098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourdarkspirits/pseuds/ourdarkspirits
Summary: Lara  looks to make amends and maybe get in some trouble as well
Relationships: Lara Croft/Lu Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	after the world ends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ardentaislinn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardentaislinn/gifts).



Lara is surprised by how much she hates the Croft Manor after everything. It’s too big. Her voice echoes off the walls. It never suited her after her father disappeared. It suits her even less now that she knows what happened. 

She bangs around the house but no one is there to tell her to be quiet, to be mindful of the valuables. She’s not trying to break things, she just wants some noise. She gets everything she wants from the house and closes it up. She might hate the mansion but she can’t quite bring herself to sell it either. It was her childhood home after all. So she locks the door, pockets the keys and doesn’t look back.

The flat she found while she was tying up loose ends at the manor is small, like the one from before, but it’s all she needs. All she has is a backpack of clothes and enough money to start off. She slings the backpack off her shoulder and tosses it on the ground against the front door.

Lara had refused to move into the flat before it had a bed, which she crashes on as soon as she gets to the bedroom. She hasn’t slept well in weeks and she’s exhausted, but she knows what will be waiting for her as soon as she closes her eyes, even though she hopes she’ll sleep better with a change of scenery.

* * *

Lara brews a full pot of coffee next morning and downs half of it before it cools, burning her mouth in the process. The change of scenery didn’t help. The nightmares were worse than ever. She still has loose ends to tie up so she slips into her leather jacket and boots and makes her way to her meeting with Ana to sign the paperwork that will declare her father dead.

It doesn’t go how she expects. She never thought she would regret signing over the management of her father’s holdings until she sees those names in the list of assets. It lights a fire in her she hasn’t felt since before trying to find her father. It gives her a job to do. There’s so much information at the mansion, hidden in the crypt. And she has something to do with it now. 

* * *

Lu Ren had told her how to reach him when they got off the helicopter. Lara hadn’t wanted to have contact with anything or anyone connected to her time on the island, but if anyone could help her,  _ would _ help her, he would. At least she’s pretty sure he would. And maybe she needs to talk to him anyway. 

She books a last minute flight to Japan and from there finds her way to the docks where she first met Lu Ren. It’s a different boat and she’s not getting chased across the docks by thieves, but it still feels the same.

“Lu Ren!” she calls out, loud enough to be heard over the sounds of boats pulling in, men and women hawking their wares. “We need to talk!”

He emerges from the cabin, and he looks good. He gives her a frown, but she thinks he’s glad to see her. 

“I suppose we do,” he acknowledges. “Come on then.”

She crosses the short brow to his boat and jumps onto the deck. It feels right, more like home than London, even if it is a different boat. Lu Ren lifts an eyebrow at her and she closes the space between them. He steps aside and she enters the cabin. There’s a little table and he gestures for her to sit and she does.

It’s tempting to pull the folders from her backpack and leap into what she’s discovered, but she owes him more than that. She owes him a conversation about everything that happened. She dragged him out to the island. So she sets the bag down by her chair and lays her arms on the table leaning forward.

He gives the bag a pointed look but she says, “It can wait.”

“What’s going on, Lara?” he asks.

“I have nightmares,” she says, without preamble. “I keep seeing myself back there. Most of the time I don’t make it off the island.”

It’s the first time she’s talked about it. There’s no one who has experienced it except him. No one to understand. 

He doesn’t say anything for a few moments and Lara begins to doubt her decision to come here, to open up. Finally he sighs. “So do I. In my nightmares, I wasn’t able to save them.”

“I couldn’t go back to my family’s home. It was too quiet.” 

The silence stretches between them and Lu Ren gets up from the table. Lara watches him move, a tightness in her chest. He comes back to the table with a bottle and two cups. He pours and then sits back down. She takes a sip and feels the whiskey burn on the way down. 

“I didn’t think you would come back,” Lu Ren comments.

“I might not have if I hadn’t learned some things about my family’s holdings,” Lara admits, swirling the whiskey in her cup. “I thought I needed to distance myself from what happened.”

She looks up at him, meeting his gaze, and thinks she sees understanding in his face. She takes another sip, the whiskey going down smoother the second time around. 

“I’m glad you came back,” he remarks. His gaze is so steady it unnerves her. “Even if you do want something from me,” he adds after a moment, breaking his gaze to look down into his own cup.

“It just helped me realize that I shouldn’t have tried to distance myself so much,” Lara says. 

“So what’s in the backpack?” Lu Ren asks. 

Lara pulls out the folders with all the photos and documents she pulled from the crypt and the list of the Croft family holdings. Trinity is circled. Lu Ren shuffles through the papers, a frown forming on his face as she realizes what she found. 

“Who is this woman?” he asks, pointing at a picture of Ana.

“She’s been managing Croft Holdings since my father disappeared,” Lara replies. “It looks like she’s been heavily involved with Trinity specifically since before my father died, which makes me think she orchestrated his disappearance.”

“These are your father’s holdings,” Lu Ren points out. “How do you know he wasn’t involved?”

“I think he was. I think Trinity wanted more. That they paid off Ana to help them.”

“So, what do you want, Lara?” Lu Ren asks, giving her a pointed look.

“I want to stop her. Them,” Lara amends. She doesn’t know what else to say. She’s not even sure she has much more of a plan than that. Just the information that she found in the crypt. 

“How do we do it?” he asks. 

Her thoughts are racing and she starts pulling out more documents, more photos. “I think they’re going to try something like this again.” 

She flips through her father’s journal. Flips to a well-worn page. She had gone over it again and again on the flight. It’s another island in the Pacific. Proof and documentation of its existence would earn public praise and generate huge amounts of revenue.

“I think they’re looking for this,” she says, handing him the book.

“So, what? You want to find it first?” He’s flipping through the pages she’s indicated, a frown on his face. “How will that stop them?”

“I need to prove what they’re doing. I need to connect them beyond all doubt. If I can prove my father’s work, then I can prove that they believed it and tried to push him out of the operation,” Lara replies. 

“Ok,” Lu Ren says, his gaze now fully on her.

It takes her by surprise. “Really?”

He nods as if the decision is easy. “You proved yourself already and I can help you. Let’s do it.”

A grin spreads across Lara’s face. She can’t resist a good adventure. The pair of them begin planning everything they’ll need for the excursion. They won’t be able to leave right away. There’s too much to do, but she’s much more prepared this time than she was when she first sought out Lu Ren to help her find her father. She thinks this might work. 

* * *

A few days later, the boat pulls away from the docks. Lara has her doubts that this vessel is any more seaworthy than Lu Ren’s last but he swears it will get them there. The weather is better, almost too calm. Everything feels eerie and tense. She keeps waiting for something to happen, but nothing does. 

It’s unbearable. 

“I’ve read accounts of this kind of weather before,” Lu Ren says on the third day from across the table. “Doldrums. I’ve never experienced it though.”

“At least we’re not operating by sail,” Lara responds dully, gouging her knife in the wooden surface of the table. 

“Could be worse,” Lu Ren agrees. 

Lara nods, not really looking at him. It still feels terrible, powering across the sea, air so still, the only breeze coming from the movement of the boat. There should be swells, a breeze, anything. 

“How much longer?” She asks, not wanting to talk anymore about the weather.

“If your father’s map is accurate? Another day, maybe,” he replies, following the track of her knife through the wood with his eyes. “Could you stop ruining my table?”

“Sorry.”

He gets up and goes upstairs, presumably to assess the sea state, which has not changed. She sighs, dropping her head into her hands. He doesn’t come back.

* * *

That night, Lara tosses in her hammock. She barely changes position but the hammock sways wildly. The stillness of the sea has gotten to her. She’s restless and there’s nothing to do with the excess energy and she’s still having nightmares. It’s hot and her shirt is soaked in sweat and clinging to her skin. She flops until she gets a leg out of the hammock.

Solid floor beneath her feet helps. She knows the boat should be swaying but it’s not. Lara climbs the ladder to the top deck, where Lu Ren is. He doesn’t hear her right away when she surfaces and she takes a moment to enjoy the sight of him gazing up at the stars, like an old mariner navigating uncharted seas.

After a moment she approaches him. Without turning around Lu Ren says, “You should get some sleep, Lara.”

“I can’t.”

Lu Ren shrugs and she takes that to mean she can stay. She closes the space between them and gazes up at the stars with him. She does not move when he tips his head to look down at her. She waits. Thinks if she makes the first move, he’ll pull away and she doesn’t want that. 

His hand lands on her arm and she angles her body towards him. 

“Lara.” It comes out little more than a whisper. 

Finally she looks up at him and she sees her own desire mirrored in his gaze. 

“Lu Ren,” she murmurs just before his lips crash against hers. 

His hands grip her biceps like he’s trying to keep her at a distance even now as he backs her up against the wall of the cabin, his body fitting against hers. Even with his hands gripping her arms, Lara manages to get a grip on his waistband. At the feel of her fingertips scraping his skin, he loosens his hold, shifting his grip to pull her closer. 

She moans as his fingers slip into her hair and she wraps a leg around his hip, holding him right where she wants him. She pulls away from the kiss and nips at his neck in his neck and is rewarded with a deep throated growl. She grins, her teeth bared against his neck. 

Heat floods her as he gets a hand inside the waistband of her trousers. He lifts her up and carries her into the cabin. There’s a rack inside, it’s bedding a mess, but she can’t be bothered to care when he drops her on it. He lowers his body over hers and she leans forward, pulling his shirt off. She drags her hands down his chest and around him to pull him closer. 

The rest of their clothes soon follow and his body is hot and slick against hers. There is no relief to be found from the heat outside but right now, Lara does not care. She just cares about the weight of Lu Ren above her, the way he moves inside her. 

She is blessedly exhausted after and she falls into a deep sleep, her body draped over Lu Ren’s. A slight breeze drifts through the window, drying their sweat slicked bodies, but she is asleep before she can contemplate what it means.

* * *

Lara wakes up pleasantly sore in Lu Ren’s rack. The mattress feels like it’s surrounding her and if it weren’t so hot she would have a hard time convincing herself to get up. As hot as it is, she launches herself up and moves around the cabin gathering her clothes. 

“Do you think it’s safe to swim?” Lara asks as she emerges from the cabin fully clothed. Lu Ren’s shirt is nowhere to be seen and she finds herself enjoying the view.

“I suppose you’ll find out when the sharks are circling,” Lu Ren replies drily.

“You could have just said no,” she remarks.

“I could have, but I thought the image of sharks was more effective.” He grins at her. “Look.” He points to a smudge on the horizon. “That should be our island. And did you notice? There’s a slight breeze.”

Lara turns her head, feeling the air brush lightly against her face. It barely moves her hair, but it’s something. The smudge on the horizon has gotten a little more defined. 

“I think the doldrums were meant to keep us away,” Lara remarks. 

Lu Ren nods in agreement. “I’ll take doldrums over unnatural storms.”

Lara frowns. The smudge is now obviously an island. “How fast are we going?”

Lu Ren frowns at the speedometer on the console then squints at the island. “Not that fast,” he replies. 

  
She can see a mountain now and trees. The difference is disorienting. “This isn’t good.”

Lu Ren is still frowning and he shakes his head. “This isn’t right.” 

He taps the speedometer, but Lara knows there’s nothing wrong with the speedometer. They have crossed the island’s barrier and it’s drawing them closer now. She inches closer to him, watching the island approach.

“Do you think anyone’s there?” she asks.

“Let’s hope not. Then we can get the evidence and go,” Lu Ren replies darkly. “I like this island even less than the last one.”

She wants to grab his hand but she doesn’t think he would appreciate it. Instead, she keeps to herself. Soon the boat is grounded. The pair go below to grab their gear and then go ashore.

The island is a paradise and maybe if Lara’s last experience on an island in the pacific hadn’t been as terrible as it was, she would be inclined to trust it. Yet, she was not. And her father’s notebook gave her a very good reason to be wary. 

“There’s no chance your father discovered any maps doing his research?” Lu Ren asks.

“Of the island?” Lara clarifies. “No. Just charts of the surrounding sea.”

“Well let’s see if we can find this vault.”

She adjusts her rucksack on her shoulders and the pair of them cross the beach and enter a dense jungle. They are silent for an unbearable long time and Lara can’t help thinking about the night before. Foolish, really, since they were trying to beat Trinity to a huge pile of treasure, if her father’s notes were to be trusted. She tries to distract herself by forming a strategy for if Trinity’s goons were already there, but she can’t help wondering if anything has changed between them.

“I can hear you thinking,” Lu Ren breaks the silence.

“I’m thinking about what we can do in the event that Trinity is already here,” Lara replies, trying to keep the defensive edge out of her voice.

Lu Ren snorts. “Sure. You’ll put your excellent hand to hand and marksmanship skills to use and we’ll fight our way out of here. That’s not what’s got you preoccupied.”

“I’m perfectly fine keeping it to myself,” Lara replies, wishing he didn’t know her so well as he seemed to.

“Ok,” he replies easily. “Just so you know, I enjoyed last night.”

“Great. Good for you. So did I.” She doesn’t sound nearly as cool as she would like.

“It’s not what I had in mind, though,” he muses.

She hacks at some vines and pushes through underbrush. After a moment she asks, “You had a plan?”

“Course.” He’s so nonchalant it’s infuriating. “But you went back to England.”

Right. It’s not exactly easy to date someone who’s half a world away. She doesn’t know what to say. She can’t say that she knows it’s difficult when their homes are so far apart and he already knows why she went back. What else is there left to say?

“Lara,” he says after a few moments of silence and Lara realizes he’s stopped. 

She turns around, the knife she had been using on the vines dangling at her side.

“I don’t know what to say,” she says. “You know why I had to go back.”

“I do.” He closes the gap between them and it’s suddenly hard to breathe.

“Is this the best place?” she asks, and curses herself that she sounds so breathless.

“It might be the only time. When else will I get another opportunity?”

“You could be my partner,” she says, her mind racing to come up with the right thing to say. “We could travel the world together.”

“Right,” he says, his voice clipped.

He walks past her leading the way and she falls in behind him. She doesn’t know what he wanted to hear but it wasn’t that. 

“Lu Ren,” she says. She hates the way her voice sounds like she’s pleading with him. 

“Let it go, Lara,” he sighs. “We have a job to do.”

He’s right and she hadn’t wanted to open up the conversation anyway, but he had insisted on discussing it. Now she doesn’t want to let it go.

“What did you want me to say? I want to settle down with you? Stay here for a while? I want to keep up my father’s work and I’d like you to come with me.” The words come out in a rush and she wants to shove them back where they came from as soon as they’re out.

He stops and he looks at her with a look she can’t quite make out. “That’s a hell of a proposal.”

“So say yes.”

“I can think of worse ways to pass the time.” Lu Ren turns and continues walking.

“Dammit, what does that mean?” She calls after him.

“Yes.”

She grins and follows him as they continue making their way to the center of the island. They may not have a map but all of her father’s notes indicate they need to head towards the center of the island. It’s hot work and she hasn’t stopped swatting at mosquitoes since they landed but at least they’re not being chased by men with guns.

The jungle starts to get dark but they keep going. Lara keeps expecting gunmen at every turn. The sun is completely down when Lu Ren stops walking. She’s looking around when he does and almost collides with him.

“It’s too dark to keep going,” he says, “and this place is as good as any to stop.”

She looks around again, this time with an eye towards stopping. He’s right. They’re in a small clearing, defensible. They’ll be able to build a fire there. She slips he rucksack off herb shoulders and drops it on the ground and immediately feels lighter.

There’s a hatchet in her gear that she uses to gather some wood for a fire. Lu Ren takes food out of his own pack and the pair of them sit down to the first meal they’ve had since before they laid eyes on the island. They lay out bedrolls but when Lu Ren takes the first watch she forgoes hers entirely. 

She doesn’t mean to fall asleep so close to him, but it’s comfortable and something has changed. Next thing she knows he’s running his hand through her hair and murmuring her name softly.

“I’m awake,” she mumbles, sitting up. She rubs her eyes and stretches and doesn’t miss the way his gaze robes over her body. She grins at him in what would be a seductive way if she hadn’t just woken up. “Get some sleep.”

* * *

The whole island is eerily silent. They haven’t come across signs of any other people since landing and there are none of the usual sounds of a jungle. No birds, no large animals, only the occasional insect. Lara hates it. She wonders how many people left before finding what they sought, overwhelmed by the silence. 

“I don’t think anyone’s here,” Lu Ren comments, seeing her nervously look around.

“I don’t either and I don’t like it,” she replies. “I know Trinity knows about this island. They should be here.”

“Isn’t it a  good thing they’re not here? It means we’re not getting shot at,” Lu Ren remarks.

She can’t disagree with that and they keep walking. She is watching where she’s putting her feet when a giant statue looms into view so she doesn’t see it right away. She lets out an audible gasp when she sees it.

“We’re getting close,” she says when Lu Ren looks back at her with a frown.

He turns and notices it too. “Do you think this was too easy?”

“Yes.”

There should be an entrance near the base of the statue but they don’t see anything. She opens up her father’s notebook but there’s nothing about the entrance being hidden. She’s looking for signs of a hidden entrance when she hears a rumbling behind around. She whips around just in time to see Lu Ren jump back from the statue as stone slides back to reveal a staircase descending into the earth. He shrugs.

They descend the staircase. When they get far enough down that the sun no longer lights the way, Lara pulls out a flashlight. At the bottom of the staircase is a maze of tunnels and Lara remembers a note about Ariadne. The island, it seems, is full of silent protections for what it hides. 

Lu Ren pulls out a spool of thread and she looks at him with a raised eyebrow. Li mend my own clothes. I can’t just buy them,” he says defensively.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t need to.”

She grins and he begins unspooling it along their chosen path. 

“I hope your thread is long enough,” she says

“Me too. You know, this was good thread, too,” he comments, bitterness laced through his voice.

She doesn’t have a response to that. Eventually their path ends in a room shaped like an amphitheater. It’s lined with scrolls. She descends the steps into the bottom of the basin, her eyes widening in awe as she takes it all in.

“This is incredible,” she breathes. “There’s so much knowledge kept here.”

“As long as you can read it.” He’s still shifting the spool, now completely empty of thread. 

“A whole people’s history previously lost to the world.” She can’t hide the excitement in her voice. “Everything is here.”

“We should leave it here,” he says.

“I know. We would risk destroying anything we touch,” she replies. “But with the proper tools and background. Trinity can’t get their hands on this.”

They mark their path more permanently on the way back out and Lu Ren recovers his thread. When they emerge blinking into the sunlight they find themselves surrounded.

“Shit,” Lara says evaluating the situation. Trinity hasn’t stopped advertising themselves. The name is stamped on all the crates in the clearing.

“Setting up camp already?” Lu Ren asks conversationally.

A riot of clicking tells Lara that this group of men is ready to shoot them where they stand.

“Right,” Lara says, “no chance of us going on our way, then.”

They raise their hands in surrender and the mercenaries restrain them. It’s not ideal but Lara can get out of a hostage situation easier than firefight when all guns are pointed at her. They wait until evening, when everyone but a few are asleep. The restraints are ridiculously easy to break free from and Lara and Lu Ren slip free and recover their weapons. They can get their gear later.

Lara found her bow and quiver, thankful she had thought to bring that along with her guns. She’s not ready to alert the mercenaries she’s escaped. The more she can take out before starting a firefight the better. Still, she belts on her holsters as well. It’s best to be prepared.

A brief conversation of hand signals and they’re on separate paths around the camp. Lara gains some distance, finding a good perch for shooting while Lu Ren stalks the men like prey. They can’t risk leaving Trinity free to raid the library below. But they can’t massacre the camp either. They take out the guards and leave the rest restrained. Lara takes pictures of the arms Trinity to brought to secure the site and then they take their gear and leave.

They call the authorities from the satellite phone on the boat the next day and depart without looking back. They cross paths with the Coast Guard on the way back but they don’t stop. Law enforcement has everything they need to find the island. 

When they’re moored, Lara reaches out to her contacts in academia, letting them know about the island in the South China Sea with an entire library hidden underground. 

The news breaks a few days later. Trinity was found heavily armed on a deserted island in the Pacific ready to raid a previously lost site. The company is ruined. Local scholars as well as some associated with the Croft family are already planning how to beat study the site.

“So,” she starts, “what do you think about going on adventures with me?”

“I can’t think of anyone better to go on adventures with,” Lu Ren replies, pulling her to him.

She grins at him. She can’t either.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope this is something like what you were looking for for this pairing. I felt the same way about these two after watching the movie.


End file.
